Idiotic Nazi slur about a former Australian prime minister stuns Canberra. If Labor's Pat Conroy wants to play this stupid game, let's play it properly: PETER VAN ONSELEN

By PETER VAN ONSELEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 03:44, 3 July 2026 | Updated: 03:44, 3 July 2026 Your browser does not support iframes. If Pat Conroy, the Labor left Defence Industry minister, wants to call Robert Menzies a Nazi appeaser, he might want to remember something.  Menzies - Australia's longest serving prime minister and founder of the Liberal party - was the leader who took Australia into the war against Nazi Germany and raised an expeditionary force to fight overseas. Meanwhile, Curtin’s Labor opposed sending Australian expeditionary forces overseas.  Trying to turn Menzies' private letter to former prime minister Stanley Bruce, in which he wrote, days after World War II broke out in 1939, 'nobody really gives a damn about Poland', into proof of Nazi appeasement is historically stupid.  But that's what Conroy said at the National Press Club this week.  'I’m very interested in disclosing what really happened before World War II and during World War II, where it was a choice between John Curtin and Nazi-appeaser Robert Gordon Menzies,' he said.  Like much of the political class in the shadow of the First World War, Menzies was trying to find any way to avoid another catastrophic European war.  But when the moment came, he declared Australia at war with Germany and sent troops. That is not appeasement. It is the opposite. Pat Conroy, the Defence industry Minister, dropped his Nazi bombshell into a speech about the shambles that is Australia's defence procurement over the past decade  Robert Menzies was Australia's longest serving prime minister. He was PM between 1939-41 and 1949 to 1966. Above, with Queen Elizabeth II in 1954, during her tour of Australia If Conroy wants to play this stupid game, then let’s play it properly.  John Curtin, Labor’s great wartime hero, openly defended White Australia in the middle of the war.  He argued that the racial character of the country had to be protected and that Australians would not surrender that policy under pressure from Asia or anyone else.  Does that mean Curtin should now be reduced to an unreconstructed racist rather than remembered as a great wartime prime minister?  Of course not. That would be cheap, selective and historically illiterate.  Which is exactly why calling Menzies a Nazi appeaser - because he privately hoped to avoid another catastrophic European war - is such idiocy.  Menzies declared war on Nazi Germany and raised troops to fight overseas. Curtin defended White Australia. History is complicated. Conroy apparently isn't.   The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.